Digital is the new normal : -      The effects of Digitalization on the IKEA organization in Digitally Advanced Markets

Abstract: Digitalization has transformed our society and reshaped the way that people live their life. It has affected our personal lives but also created a new business climate which most companies have embraced in order to survive. IKEA are one of many companies which have decided to embark on a digital journey and re-shape their business strategy. The uncertainty of the effects of digitalization have laid the groundwork for this thesis purpose. “The purpose of this report is to analyze how digitalization has changed IKEAs service offerings, and what effects it has had on the different instances internally”.    Digitalization is not a new phenomenon, however, as digitalization itself evolves there lies an opportunity in analyzing digitalization from the perspective of a traditional company such as IKEA. Traditional companies, and especially IKEA, are highly dependent on their retail stores. As digitalization open up the possibility of purchasing products and services online, we want to further analyze the effects on IKEA. The research has been conducted through a qualitative approach, where insightful interviews have helped us get a deeper understanding on the topic and answer our question of how it has affected IKEA. An abductive approach then enabled the usage of previous literature to be used in combination with our empirical findings and be analyzed.    The theory chapter discusses the topic of digitalization and digital transformation. It then includes previous research on the subject of change management. The conceptual framework provides a tool to analyze the effects of change through the lens of digitalization. In the analysis chapter, the empirical findings are compared and contrasted with the help of our theoretical framework. We then draw conclusions which are presented together with the practical and theoretical implications of the study, as well as the limitations and suggestions for future research.    The outcome of this study has provided an insight to the effects that IKEAs digital transformation journey has had on the internal structure of the organization. Our findings suggest that digitalization has forced IKEA to alter their service offering, which in turn has led to effects on the internal structure of the organization. These effects have led to improved internal communication, a rearranging of management structure, implementation of new technology and re-development of tasks for the employees